The Role of Federalism in Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Role of Federalism in Education - Essay Example elegant rights leaders, such as Evers and King, publicized the unfair treatment of African Americans and other people of color, and the spotlight turned on education reform (Allen, 1996, p. 162).Since 1965 many set ahead efforts have been made to update and improve the education system, but its similar to plugging up leaks in a dam--eventually, the dam will fall apart finished lack of structure and foundation. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, signed into law by George W. Bush, is the present administrations effort to rebuild the dam before its too late, but will politics and business interests create invisible cracks during implementation Is this Act the ultimate answer and does it take into consideration the global issues that concisely exist in the 21st centuryAs America continues to evolve as a nation, the influence of the Internet on communication between countries makes it deport that education must include multicult ural education, not specifically from the viewpoint of Americans with no knowledge of other cultures, but with input from those who can share their inseparable language and their way of life with others. We live in a country of immigrants, but somewhere along the line we chose to establish a nation ground on white, Anglo-Saxon, protestant tenets, ignoring the rich mix of cultures that make us who we are. According to Sonia Nieto, Multicultural education cannot be understood in a vacuum but rather must be seen in its personal, social, historical, and political context (1996, p. 1).Addressing Education ReformDuring the 1950s in the United States, the family unit seemed solid and pediatrician Dr. benzoin Spock gave mothers credit for knowing instinctively how to raise their children. This was in contrast to behaviorist John Watsons method of rigid discipline, and Spocks book The Common Sense Book of thwart and Child Care (1946) was so popular it led to gradual erosion of the rules of behavior. In the meantime, a 1954 Supreme Court ruling that public schools must be integrated was virtually ignored until 1957 when nine black students were enrolled at a previously all-white school in Little Rock, Arkansas. This was the beginning of the publics introduction to cultural differences, and it was compound by what was known as the Red Threat, or communism. When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik first, it was decided that American children needed a better educational foundation, especially in math and science. This created what was called at the time an informational flood with children and their reading becoming the focus of big business. With this increased production, childrens books became less a branch of literature and more a gainful product (Allen, p. 132). The increasing focus on childrens education made its shortcomings more evident, and it was clearly necessary to address segregation and unequal educational probability due to poverty. The problems inherent in the education system as it existed in the 1960s called for drastic measures. Francis Keppel, dean of Harvard Graduate School of Education, was appointed U.S. Commissioner of Education and crafted the ESEA of 1965 in an effort to address the issues that extended